


Unexpected Guests

by n7chelle



Series: A Herd of Black Sheep [4]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-12 23:21:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16005425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/n7chelle/pseuds/n7chelle
Summary: Some of Athena's siblings unexpectedly arrive at Skyhold. Set very soon after Family Secrets.





	Unexpected Guests

**Author's Note:**

> Second post from r/dragonage. The prompt was "unexpected childcare." Again, edited to present tense.
> 
> Introducing, two of Athena's siblings!

"Inquisitor? You have...guests." Athena looks up from studying the weapon schematic—another joint project between Harritt and Dagna—at Josephine's uncertain tone. It isn't like the ambassador to come find her personally, especially down in the dank, cold underbelly that is the Undercroft. In the flickering torchlight the walls, floor and ceiling always glisten with the spray from the waterfall, and Josephine's fine gold silks and polished shoes are starkly out of place here, a jewel in a bucket of stones. 

No one is waiting for them in the hall, though there are plenty milling about. Repairs are almost finished on the most visible signs of disrepair in this part of Skyhold. There's room now for tables to be set up, and senior officers are always coming and going between their shifts. Athena makes an effort to stop and talk with whomever is present when she passes by. Bull is right. She can't know every single face and name under her command, but she won't let it stop her from reaching out whenever she can. She nods to a few as she follows Josephine to her office, and receives a scattering of friendly salutes in reply. 

The door to Josephine's office swings closed, heavy and solid and blocking out the noise of the hall. The carpets, the heraldry on the walls, the never-ending stacks of ledgers and papers and books—all of it is as familiar now to Athena as the shock of red hair and pale skin on the man facing away from them, though it could never, ever be as dear.  

"Theo!" For a moment, Athena forgets herself. Forgets the Inquisition, the soldiers at her command, the countless lives that hang in the balance all across Thedas, forgets even Josephine standing at her side...and loses herself in the achingly warm embrace of her big brother. "Theo, what're you doing here?" she mumbles into his neck. She can feel him chuckling through his skin, even as she feels the breath across her cheek.  

"I didn't come alone, Tena."  

Athena pulls back, and only then does she notice the dainty figure behind him, ruddy cheeked and clutching at the hem of her own tunic, as if to stay her hands from reaching for something forbidden. 

_"Fi,"_ Athena gasps, dumbstruck. It has only been a few months since she left Ostwick. Apparently a growth spurt had struck her baby sister as soon as she was out of sight. Fi's long curls still fall halfway down her back in dark, elegant waves, but now the top of her head comes up to Athena's chin rather than her chest. 

"Hello, sister." Fi's eyes are downcast, but they flick up just long enough for Athena to catch a glimpse of watery amber. In the space of a breath, she's swept her younger sister into her arms. 

"Oh, Fi! You came all this way?" The reply is garbled, an unintelligible noise spoken into her chest and lost under the suspiciously loud sniff that follows. Athena holds her closer still, fingers threading through the dark mass of her hair. "Theo?" 

"Julian's gone to Rivain again. He hasn't been back since before Elijah's nameday."  

Ah. Athena nods silently. She'ss careful not to react to the way Fi's arms squeeze, tight and stiff at the mention of  _Rivain._  

A small cough sounds behind her, and Athena twists to find Josephine standing, politely and unobtrusively distant by the door to her own office. Theo must have already introduced himself somehow, but the requirements of etiquette chafe against her now that the initial rush of seeing her family again has passed. Gently she disentangles herself from Fi, though she keeps an arm around her slight shoulders.  

"Josephine Montilyet, chief Ambassador of the Inquisition—allow me to introduce Theodor and Fiorentina Trevelyan, heirs of House Trevelyan, and my siblings."  

"A pleasure to meet family of the Inquisitor," Josephine says, plucking up her skirt and actually  _curtsying_. Athena feels her eyebrow twitch, amused. Josephine has a tendency to lay the manners on a little thick almost as a defensive habit when she feels out of her depth or the need to impress, but this is a bit much just for her siblings. And Athena is certain the Montilyets outstrip the Trevelyans in fortune and connections. "Will you be staying at Skyhold for a few days at least?" A quill pen appears in her hand as if from nowhere, poised over the inkwell on her ledger board. "I'll have rooms prepared for you immediately." 

"If it's not too much trouble, better make it three rooms." When Athena looks to her brother questioningly, he shrugs guiltily. "Baz came too. He was with us up to the courtyard, but we lost him by your tavern. Herald's Rest?" he smirks at the name. Athena has no doubt she'll never hear the end if it once they have a moment alone. Along with probably a hundred other things, the least of which being how did his little sister go from envoy to the Conclave to leader of a quasiheretical standing army with no allegiance to any throne in Thedas? "...spotted that big Qunari you mentioned through the window, " Theo is saying.  

Athena's attention snaps back into focus at the mention of Bull. Bull and Baz, in the same place? Herald's Rest might not be  _standing_ if those two are left to it long enough.  

"Uh, Josephine if you could just..." Athena gestures at Theo and Fi meaningfully, her feet already carrying her to the door.  

"Wait, where are you—"  

"Actually—Fi, you stay with Josephine. Theo come with me, just in case."  

"Tena, wait!" Athena grunts, Fi's weight thrown against her back. "I want to go with you." 

"The tavern is no place for a child, Fi," Athena says. It's terribly a feeble excuse, given that Herald's Rest isn't some seedy backwater dive. She just wants to introduce Fi to the Inquisition in a slightly more controlled environment. Preferably  _not_ in between breaking up a good old-fashioned brawl between the two brawniest men she's ever seen in Thedas. She trusts Baz—and Bull—not to do any serious harm to each other outside of a real battle. She's slightly less confident in them finding somewhere suitably private before the clothes start coming off.  

"I'm not a  _child,_ "Fi protests, oblivious to Athena's internal struggle. "I'm fifteen!"  

She shouldn't have looked down. But it's muscle memory, thoughtless habit, and once those eyes, the same golden yellow shade as her own, but round and soft and guileless have Athena pinned—there's nothing she can do.  

Athena sighs.  

"Guess we'll start your tour of Skyhold a little early," she says, hoping she wouldn't regret this by the end of the day. "First stop: Herald's Rest." 


End file.
